25,000

Thanks to everyone for dropping in from time to time to check out my blog. I love Baseball, I love APBA & I love to write about both. I have (through APBA Facebook Group) been blessed to share my love for the game, and meet many wonderful friends in the Facebook group that share the same passions for the game as I do. I'm real thankful for their friendships, in fact I would consider a small handful of these friendships, to be close friends of mine -- My APBA brothers.

I have been fortunate to meet these friends in person during the APBA Chicagoland Tournament in Woodstock, IL & hope to eventually meet some of the other friends in person one day.

25,000 have now visited this site that truly started in March 2013. My biggest month was July 2013 (1,643 people visited that month). I am also closing on 400 published posts. It was my time on the APBA Facebook Group that made this blog possible, and it's the people that happen to love reading my stuff -- that made this a success. Success is not about numbers, overall numbers don't matter to me, if it was just 5 people tuning in, I would be cool with that, because there is no containing my love for baseball, and I definitely needed an outlet to do so. I live, breathe, talk APBA & Baseball, so for it me it's all natural.

For some people, it's a morning jog, or working on the car, or painting -- an outlet that they do everyday. For me, it was that, plus a whole lot more, more than I could have ever dreamed of.

Thanks,
Shawn

APBA Products

I have noticed many posts on our APBA Facebook Group that seemed surprise on the products that are out there. I decided to make this post to raise awareness on all the cool stuff that you can purchase on APBA Games via Cafe Press. The APBA site doesn't exactly make it a quick route to the APBA clothing & merchandise -- so I decided to help.

Go to APBA Games (www.apbagames.com) - Click on Shop > Now you are on the APBA Stadium Shop via Yahoo. Left hand column, go down and click on Apparel

You'll see a shirt to the right, in the small paragraph,  you'll see the words click here (underlined) --
Click that, and BOOM! APBA stuff brought to you by Cafe Press...

Let's go to the new logo stuff & see what they have shall we -- on that middle icon >>>

Let's go see what they have for shirts with the new logo>>>

A shirt with the new APBA Logo -- and you have the choice of like 20 different colors, this example shows off the shirt with the color Army.

There is other cool things all across the site -- I couldn't find the custom-made APBA Card shirts or mugs, but I did find a few on certain players they had -- I'm pretty sure that my friend Kenneth Heard (of "Love, Life and APBA Baseball") will dig this mug below...

What better way to re-watch Game 6 of the 1991 World Series, than sipping on a Hot Cocoa during a cold & blustery Minnesota day?

Now I'm not a huge fan of iPhones, or cellphones in general -- call me old school, but if you are going to wait in mile-longs lines for an iPhone, than you need to decorate it in this bad boy below...

APBA on your iPhone -- How sweet is this?! 

They still sell the bumper stickers fellas...

There is so much on this site, it's not even funny. You and your significant can celebrate a baby on the way, by making it official with this shirt. If you buy this shirt for your wife or girlfriend, you will make the APBA Gods bless your child as a future gamer -- all you have to do is buy this shirt...

Want to have a shirt showing off the APBA BASEBALL Playing Board? Look no further...

By the way, I love the sleeves on this shirt, kind of old school feel to it.

Can't sleep, Doug Schuyler? Because Craig Christian's dice tower keeps giving you nightmares? Then look no further my friend, than your very own APBA Pillow Case! Let the pillow case ease your mind, get a good night sleep & start rolling 66's at your next APBA tournament.

WARNING: The APBA Pillow Case cannot guarantee that you will roll 66's -- let's face it, it just looks cool.

You can also take a shower in style....

Seriously, they have everything...

These items of course are only a few of many, many items that are on the site -- they have added many of these more clever ones in the last few years.

FINALLY, I may have saved the best one for last, or at least most fitting towards this time of year, but what better way to say MERRY CHRISTMAS with this APBA Stocking filled with... maybe... some APBA teams you bought on eBay or on the site? Your kids what go nuts -- I know I would.

I hope this post was some big help for everyone, God bless, be careful, and Happy Holidays from my family to your own. 

BoS Power Rankings (End of April)

The above was taken from last year's example of how I came up with the Power Rankings formula, in time I may eventually add bullpen & stolen base aspects to the rankings. This is how it will work for this year though.

The 2013 BoS World Champion South Shore Fighting Imps lead the end of April BoS Rankings, followed by the Traverse City Panthers, Swatara Eliminators & Portland Microbrewers. We are playing the 2014 BoS Baseball Regular Season (2013 MLB stats).

The A.L. Central - MLB Off-Season (So Far...)

Lorenzo Cain & the Royals, ready to that next step?

A.L. Central

At the end of last season, with Detroit getting knocked off in the first-round (as expected) and the Kansas City Royals moving on to the World Series, I made a statement of some sort that the torch has been passed in the A.L. Central (from Detroit to Kansas City) -- not really sure about that at the moment, and to be honest not sure who's division it actually belongs to. In writing and for the record books, the Detroit Tigers are the defending A.L. Central Division Champions, then again the Royals are the defending American League Champions.

The Royals finally made that jump to the playoffs last season, and once they did -- what an exciting team to watch in the post-season, personally it was one of the more exciting playoff runs that I have seen in some time; Royal fans should be excited & they need to stay excited and show off their Royal blue in the stands all year around (something that was legitimately questioned by Manager Ned Yost). With a constant heavy attendance, these players who play off momentum should keep their winning ways. The team has not made any major additions this off-season to this point, and really are not expected to -- they kept Luke Hochevar by signing him to a two-year deal; Hochevar excelled in his relief role in 2013 with a 5-2 record, 1.92 ERA & 82 K's in 70.1 innings -- but missed all of 2014 due to injuries. Traded Aaron Crow to Miami in exchange for pitchers Brian Flynn and Reid Redman. Baseball analysts believe that Lorenzo Cain is ready to make that next step & that he is starting to realize his power potential, as Cain showed off his excellent skills in the post-season. The Royals are not expected to pursue resigning free agent pitcher James Shields, expect them to go cheaper routes, going to the bargain bin for a starter or two. Moving Brandon Finnegan to the rotation I believe will be a mistake possibly, like his stuff in the bullpen; if they do send him to rotation, he will have to get used to starting again with plenty of work in the minors, it was truly amazing to watch him go from College World Series to the MLB World Series in the same year! The team still has the best bullpen in the Majors, Crow was the only departure & Hochevar rejoins it. I believe K.C. will be in the playoff contention mix once again, their chances of winning the division for the first time since 1985, depends on the Tigers resigning Scherzer or not.

How much of a difference a hop to another paragraph makes, sorry K.C. fans, but I still believe the Detroit Tigers own the division after today's flurry of deals. Now let me make the record show that I don't really love or like the idea of trading a starting pitcher for a corner outfielder usually, the reason that the Tigers did trade Rick Porcello to Boston in exchange for Yoenis Cespedes, is due to the fact that Porcello's salary was going to be hiked up through arbitration -- and that it will help the team in its quest for resigning Max Scherzer, which will likely be in the ballpark of $200 million; Plus you add a big bat like Cespedes (even though his OBP can be frustrating). The Tigers took care of their void left by Porcello, in acquiring Alfredo Simon from the Reds -- which YES, did cost another first rounder being traded away from our organization in Jonathon Crawford; Crawford was traded along with Eugenio Suarez to the Reds. The Tigers in recent years, have now traded first-round picks in Porcello, Jacob Turner & Crawford. We added Shane Greene from that three-way deal with the New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Tigers rotation at the moment appears to be:

1) David Price

2) Justin Verlander

3) Anibal Sanchez

4) Alfredo Simon

5) Shane Greene

If the Tigers are able to resign Max Scherzer, the Tigers will still have the best rotation in baseball, even if they don't they still have a good rotation (most teams would not scoff at having such a rotation).

The Tigers' rotation - IF they resigned Max Scherzer, appears as this:

1) Max Scherzer

2) David Price

3) Justin Verlander

4) Anibal Sanchez

5) Shane Greene

Scherzer: To sign or not to sign? That is the question.

Max signing the biggest contract for a pitcher, will also be awarded the ace slot, David Price would be great as the second slot, while Justin Verlander regains his confidence facing off against other #3 starters (or lower rotation pitchers). Anibal Sanchez is used to be in the 3rd/4th slot at this point. Greene over Simon, for a few reasons, Dave Dombrowski planned to put Greene in rotation & Simon out of the two would be a more valuable weapon coming out of the bullpen as a long reliever (using him a couple innings at a time) -- not really sure Greene would be able to come out of pen. Of course, Simon loved being a starter for the Reds. It's still early in the off-season, maybe now that we have Simon, we ship Greene off somewhere -- maybe get backups in places like at catcher, more SS depth in case Jose Iglesias gets hurt again.

The White Sox before this past week at the Winter Meetings, I had them at 4th place (at best). After all their recent moves? Possibly as good as second! This division has went from the weakest to possibly the best division in the A.L. -- it's close with the West, the East has meanwhile plummeted. The White Sox added Adam LaRoche, David Robertson (a closer), and Jeff Samardzija to their rotation; A rotation that includes Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and prospect Carlos Rodon -- Rodon is going to be a beast! Plus you get LaRoche to help protect Jose Abreu in the order, plus it will be another big plus if Avisail Garcia breaks out. It appears at the time of this post, they also signed Melky Cabrera, Kansas City inks one-year deal with Alex Rios.

A week ago, I had Cleveland in the mix for second, they had no major losses, and their starting rotation was the 2nd best in the entire American League that had a bad defense behind them -- that is why Corey Kluber won the A.L. Cy Young people, he had a bad defense behind him, in a hitter's park compared to Felix Hernandez's advantage of a pitcher's park. Kluber earned it fair & square, I loved watching this guy pitch, but was not thrilled when the Tigers had to play him. Trevor Bauer looks like he's turning that corner, and can be counted on as a solid rotation arm for the tribe. Carlos Carrasco and a bounced-back Danny Salazar will be a formidable pair, while 5th slot is manned down by T.J. House. The team acquired Brandon Moss in a trade from Oakland, at this point, he has been their only real addition.

Minnesota will likely be in last place, but they have a interesting mix of arms in Phil Hughes, Ricky Nolasco (if he bounces back from horrific 2014), and new addition in free agent signee Ervin Santana. The team had setbacks in their future stars Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano (due to untimely injuries), they did learn more about their team along the way, plus a strong rookie year from Danny Santana. Torii Hunter returns to Minnesota, to possible finish his career, he will be a huge mentor to the young Twinkies on the roster. HOF'er Paul Molitor takes over for Rod Gardenhire.

A.L. West is on deck...

BoS Week 4 (National League)

Donaldson leads the N.L. in batting average & a few other categories.

"Black Streak"

The Traverse City Panthers (16-6) find themselves in unfamiliar territory, they now have won 9 straight games, sweeping Seattle in six games -- to put it in perspective, Traverse City's longest winning streak in 2013 was 4 games (tied for worst with the Washington Filibusters). Only 6 teams last season won at least 9 straight last season, Boston had the league's longest at 15 games. T.C's chance of matching that is highly unlikely, since they have to host a 6-game series against tough division rival Holland this upcoming week (Holland owns a career 13-9 record over the Panthers). The team has vastly improved in the pitching department this last week, and now ranks 3rd in ERA (3.30), while the Panthers lead the league in strikeouts (237) -- an astounding 10.8 K's per game. They are 2nd in hitting & led by Josh Donaldson. Donaldson (1.016 OPS) has finally put some home runs on the board to go with his great stats for 2014, he now is batting .359 (leads league) with 3 HR's & 20 RBI. Ryan Raburn has been lethal off the bench (.323, 4, 10 in 31 AB's) with a 1.150 OPS. Julio Teheran continues to make opposing hitters look like fools, sporting a 4-1 record, 1.62 ERA, with 47 K's in 33.1 innings (opponents are batting only .161 against him).

The Holland Hitchhikers (2nd place in N.L. East) meanwhile, split 3-3 with a tough Portland ball-club -- they trail Panthers by 3.5 games & get their chance to make some ground back; They are 5-1 on the road this season. Mike Minor keeps improving for Holland is now topping the rotation with a 2.77 ERA & perfect 3-0 record, while Jose Fernandez (3-1, 3.35) is 2nd in the National League with 49 strikeouts. Greg Holland has been a perfect 6-for-6 in the Saves department for Holland, with a 1-0 record, no runs (only 2 hits) allowed, with 10 K's in 8.1 innings; In fact the bullpen is rocking with a 1.82 ERA. Eric Hosmer and Evan Gattis are tied for the team lead with 16, while Gattis continues to lead the league in HR's (8) as a rookie. Bryce Harper has the power - 7 HR's (2nd) with 14 RBI & 20 runs scored... but lacks average at the moment (.197). The team still needs improvement in their rotation by Stephen Strasburg, Matt Moore & Zack Wheeler, if they want to win this division -- they are definitely a team in the mix, as the N.L. is starting to show some separation.

The Hannibal Cavemen (11-12) held off the powerful offense of San Diego, to pull off a tough 3-3 split, they also improved to 3-0 in extra-inning games with their 4-3 victory in Game 3. The team still ranks among the best in pitching (2nd in ERA - 3.24), but have a negative Run Differential of 7. The team finds itself in 3rd place at the moment, as their lineup is still struggling (.227) with the 2nd lowest scoring average (3.3) in the N.L. -- It does not help that the team is next to the bottom in fielding. Jon Lester leads the team with a 3-0 record & 2.01 ERA (30 K's in 31 innings) while Travis Wood keeps winning the bad luck award (going 1-3) despite a 3.00 ERA in 5 starts (2 CG). Gio Gonzalez (2-3) has slowed down of late, with a 3.34 ERA & 27 K's. Buster Posey has woke up & is now batting .271, with 4 HR's & 11 RBI -- which is a good sign; James Loney (.295) has been the only consistent bat in their lineup for the most part. Good news, Hannibal hosts struggling Urbana.

The Urbana Locomotives are at the bottom of their division, and are already 8.5 games out (T.C's streak didn't help matters), while they have a 2-5 record in one-run games. They are last in hitting (.216) and are only average 3.0 runs a game (with a -16 Run Differential); 53% of their opponents' runs came off them in the first four innings, this season -- leaving them in many situations of playing from behind. The team is 6th in ERA (3.49), while they can at least hang their hat on the defense that ranks 3rd behind Traverse City & Seattle. Their bullpen has been the stronger element of their staff (2.17 ERA), although playing mostly mop-up. David Price (25 career wins) & Cole Hamels continue to put up good numbers, while Hiroki Kuroda is only 1-4, with a 4.04 ERA -- a year after winning 21 games. The two starters (Jeff Samardzija & Ubaldo Jimenez) acquired from Chicago during the 2014 BoS Draft (to help with pitching depth) are a combined 1-6, 5.48 ERA. Urbana has not had much time to take any deep breaths, as they prepare for a road trip to inner-state Hannibal.

In many ways, the Portland Microbrewers (14-8) are still the team to beat in the National League. They have the rotation & they are the defending National League Champions. They also have the best player in the game in Mike Trout, who really hasn't got rolling yet (then again, he started slow last season as well); Trout has improved to .262, with 3 HR & 11 RBI, drawing 13 walks, with 3 steals; He also is currently on a 12-game hitting-streak. The team has three starting pitchers under 3,00 ERA in Cliff Lee (2.17), Anibal Sanchez (2.60) & Hisashi Iwakuma (2.95). Juan Uribe (.364, 4, 8) and Brad Miller (.333, 2, 9) have batted well in limited play, while the team hopes that Carlos Gonzalez's bat (.204 BA) heats up to go along with his 6 HR's & 13 RBI. Portland visits the Rainiers, their northwestern division rival, next.

The San Diego Heroes (13-10) keep getting it done with its power -- to the point that they should add "Super" to Heroes, they have 39 HR's in 23 games, good enough to be on pace for 275 HR's! They have 3 players (Edwin Encarnacion, Chris Davis & Nelson Cruz) with 6 HR's each (that's a pace for 42 HR's -- imagine three players on one club with that many homers?!) They have a .799 OPS & got done with a 3-3 split against Hannibal's tough starting pitching. Their pitching was somewhat of a surprise in the first 3 weeks, this past week, some of their starters are coming back down to Earth -- while their bullpen (2.35 ERA) continues to go strong, led by Kenley Jansen's 5 Saves. Tyson Ross continues to have a good year, 2-0, 2.63 ERA, with 37 K's in 27.1 innings -- along with A.J. Griffin's 4-0 start, featuring an ERA of 2.80 & 30 K's in 35.1 IP. The Heroes currently look like Portland's biggest threat in the west, they host the 10-13 Kings next.

The King Road Kings hope that Chris Sale can rebound from a rough start & join Clayton Kershaw for the best one-two left-handed punch in baseball -- meanwhile, it's been a different sort of 1-2 combo for the Kings in Kershaw & Ervin Santana; Both pitchers have a ERA below 2.00 (Kershaw 1.93, Santana 1.98 - 4 starts each). Both have a shutout this season, while Kershaw has recorded a Save. Daniel Murphy has been the King of Kings on offense, batting .293, with 2 HR & 13 RBI, to go along with his team-leading 9 doubles & 15 runs. Michael Cuddyer (.282, 3, 14) is batting good as well. The team is still waiting on Josh Hamilton to lift that .182 batting average, he does have 3 HR & 13 RBI though; Chase Headley & Billy Butler have been getting on base (drawing plenty of walks), but could hit for better also. The Kings will have their work cut out for them as they face San Diego's powerful lineup, who has no problem scoring runs -- while the Kings enter the series at a -8 Run Differential, which does not spell out to be a successful series.

The Seattle Rainiers ran into a red-hot team in Traverse City & their red-hot pitcher Julio Teheran (2 wins, 19 K's in 14 innings, 3 runs & 10 hits allowed); They also lost a 16-inning 1-0 game, against a tough Matt Harvey (14 K's in 9.2 IP) -- a game that Max Scherzer was absolutely on, allowing only 3 hits in 9 innings, with 10 K's. Scherzer has been showing signs of turning it around, as he is now 1-2, with a 3.72 ERA, while leading the National League with 50 strikeouts. The team still has the worst pitching in the league (4.72 ERA), which they need Justin Masterson, Jason Vargas & Kyle Kendrick to step it up. Wil Myers (.368 BA/.905 OPS in 38 AB's), Mike Carp (.289, 3, 12) & Brett Gardner (.270 BA, 20 H & 4 steals) have been the team's bright spots in the lineup, while Evan Longoria (who had a great season in MLB) has been disappointing so far, with his .202 batting average. The Rainiers have been outscored by 35 runs so far, and it doesn't get easier with Portland coming into town.

*** This concludes the N.L. Highlights for Week 4 ***